POLITICALLY DIRECT

Is De Niro the new Jane Fonda?

Exclusive: Jane Chastain says actor and his ilk are telling fans, 'Shut up and buy tickets!'

Jane Chastain is a Southern California-based broadcaster, author and political commentator. Despite her present emphasis on politics, Jane always will be remembered as the nation's first female TV sportscaster, spending 17 years on the sports beat. Jane blogs at JaneChastain.com. She is a pilot who lives on a private runway.

For decades, the political class, as well as other influential people, have observed the maxim “politics stops at the water’s edge.” This simply means that when a president is dealing with a matter of national importance abroad, the criticism stops until the crisis is averted or, at the very least, he is back safety inside the confines of the United States.

With President Trump, that is no longer the case. The political atmosphere in Washington is so toxic that Democrats, and some members of his own party, feel free to take pot shots at him even as he deals with issues that could avert nuclear war.

However, when Robert De Niro let his distaste of this president spill over at the Tony Awards Sunday night on the eve of his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, it not only broke the mold of civility but raised bad taste to a level unseen in prime time, even on an awards show. While Di Nero’s “F–- Trump” comment was deleted by an alert executive monitoring the program at CBS, the actor’s unscripted comment went viral prompting outrage from the right and the left.

To say that De Niro jumped the shark would be an understatement. He jumped the whole darn ocean. Actors and entertainers are often so full of themselves they spout off about issues they know nothing about. For the most part, these misguided celebs get a pass from their fans who continue to go to their movies, show up at their concerts and buy their music. Nevertheless, the impact of their lack of discretion has shown up in the ratings for these award shows and may eventually spell the end of these telecasts.

Sunday night’s Tony Awards was no exception. This once-a-year broadcast, which highlights the best talent on Broadway, scored a mere 4.8 metered market share, up only a tenth of a percent over last year when these awards were up against the Stanley Cup, and down 2 percent from the year before.

This annual spectacle, which featured some of the best talent in the country, came in behind “Celebrity Family Feud” in the 8 p.m. hour, which featured the Kardashian and West families, not exactly foes of this president.

Why does this actor and the Hollywood elite in general hate Trump so much?

They claim Trump hates women even though he has a great record of promoting women throughout his career and has appointed an astounding number to senior level positions in his administration, including some that were unprecedented, like CIA chief Gina Haspel.

They claim Trump hates minorities even though his policies have led to the lowest unemployment numbers for blacks and Hispanics in history.

They claim Trump hates the poor and working class even though his policies are putting people back to work and lifting them out of poverty. In his construction business, Trump worked closely with the blue-collar class and has a unique understanding and respect for the important work they do as well as their issues.

They say Trump’s a womanizer, and that was certainly true in the past, although there is evidence that he has changed in the last decade. We can only hope that is true. Nevertheless, De Niro wasn’t exactly a saint in that department. His history of womanizing is legion!

So what is De Niro and these overpaid, pompous celebrities that shamelessly gave him a standing ovation for his inappropriate, vulgar remark saying to their religious, moral, hard-working, play-by-the- rules fans? “Shut up and buy movie tickets!” That’s because most can’t afford tickets to the Broadway shows they were celebrating Sunday night or tickets to see Bruce Springsteen live, the man De Niro was introducing. “Just shut up and keep buying the darn tickets and music!”

While Trump was becoming the leader of the free world, De Niro, who hasn’t exactly been setting records at the box office in recent years, gave us the tasteless “Dirty Grandpa,” one of the biggest flops of 2016.

De Niro may well be the new Jane Fonda who, in 1972, despite early success at the box office, became radioactive for years after she criticized our country and was photographed on an anti-aircraft gun in Vietnam used to shoot down American pilots. She also started the FTA, which she said stood for “Free the Army.” It was widely understood to mean “F–- the Army.”

However, there was no double meaning in De Niro’s words Sunday night. We heard him loud and clear!